| Division Zeroes, Hundred Lap Open & Outdoor Heroes - Apr 20, 2008 |
With a handful of World Champions attending the event, The Tampa Classic proved to be a site to see this year. After all, when you have top athletes, good venues, thrills, spills, crazy passes, upsets, redemptions, blood, sweat & tears, what else could you possibly want?
Victory eluded the Answer-Luigino Team Friday in the Pro Men’s indoor division, as Harry Vogel took 4th & Joey Mantia finished 5th. Between disqualification, crashing, a little frustration, and sickness, the boys in orange and black failed to continue their winning indoor streak. Michael Cheek decided to sit out of division, as a result of becoming sick following the completion of his first race (Cheek has been battling a serious staph infection and felt unfit to contend in the remaining division races). As for the rest of the team, Joey Mantia & Harry Vogel failed to get off the line quickly in the 500m final, finishing 3rd and 4th respectively. In the 1500m, Vogel took a spill early in the race while Mantia threw a bad pass on the final straight, resulting in a DQ. Finally, in the 50 lap points race, Vogel finished a close 2nd while Mantia simply failed to perform, finishing an unexpected 5th.
Fired up after a completely disappointing day of racing, the Answer boys sought redemption in the infamous 100 Lap Greg Marshall Memorial Open the following day. The boys were on a mission to let everyone know what happened in division was not something to get used to. Harry Vogel went to the lead early and pounded out a very fast 30 laps with Mantia in tow. After the initial burn set in to everyone’s legs, Mantia took the lead and went on a series of break-aways from the pack, simply playing a little cat and mouse with anyone daring to chase. Finally, Mantia came back to the pack with about 20 laps remaining in the race, at which point Cheek felt it was a perfect time to lap the pack and seal the deal. Cheek made it around effortlessly as the pack had dwindled from 18 skaters to a mere 5 or 6. Winning every single prime lap and capping it off with a full sweep of the top 3 placements, the fellows from Luigino-Answer proved that they are the best indoor trio in the world, and made a couple bucks doing it.
The Outdoor portion of Tampa has been monopolized by Joey Mantia over the past couple of years, and this year was no different. The 500m final was full of World Champions, including Answer’s very own Harry Vogel and Joey Mantia. Off the line, Mantia won the start and never looked back, winning by a very considerable margin for such a short race. In the 1500m, three foreign skaters wearing the blue and yellow of Powerslide went to the front from the beginning and set a blistering pace. Michael Cheek was determined to make the pack of 10 Powerslide skaters uncomfortable as possible by attempting to pass every chance he had, and that’s exactly what he did. By the second lap, Harry Vogel threw an amazing inside-outside pass, jumping through the Powerslide train and racing them to the corner for the first position. He and Kalon Dobbin went 2 wide in a very slippery corner, nearly resulting in Harry taking a tumble in the grass. Vogel was able to save it at the last second, but by this time all his speed was scrubbed off and Mantia made his move. Coming around the finishing corner with 1 lap to go, Joey bolted around the rest of the field and opened up a gap so big he could have stopped and had lunch. Rolling to the line with his hands raised up above his head, Mantia finished an easy first with help from his 2 teammates. Finally, the day ended with the World Class Men’s 20k points race; 20 laps around a 1k course. Mantia went out from the start with something to prove to the rest of the field as he single- handedly dominated, taking nearly every 1st place point in the first 7k. After the constant intervals and never once settling back in the pack, Mantia got away with a German and Colombian. They stayed away from the pack for about 3 laps, at which point the Colombian decided he had had enough and drifted back into the field. Mantia and Wieduwilt just kept trading off leads, pulling further and further away from the pack, until the last lap when Joey decided to pick up the pace and lap the field before coming across the finish. Michael Cheek finished a respectable 5th behind 2 World Champions.
With the racing over and everyone’s legs sore from such a grueling weekend, the Answer-Luigino crew felt the satisfaction of redemption. Considering all the upsets that happened, including Tiger Woods’ defeat and all the underdogs in the NCAA beating out high ranking seeds, the Answer boys were in good company on Friday, failing to find the top 3. However, like any true champion, they didn’t let it get to them mentally and decided they were going to do something about it. They took the bad and used it to motivate them to go out and skate like they meant it, proving that Team Answer/ Luigino are STILL the forces to be reckoned with.